Thursday, July 23, 2020

BEFORE PROGG - A SPECIAL FEATURE ON SWEDISH 60'S POP, ROCK & PSYCH


It is of course very convenient declaring the two Gärdet festivals the starting point of Swedish progg, but as with any 'movement', progg is the result of what came before it. There's not one thing that appears completely out of the blue with no ties to the history. Besides, claims of the Gärdet festivals as the real beginning of progg exclude bands such as Hansson & Karlsson and Baby Grandmothers from the equation which needless to say is plain revisionism. But the roots of progg go deeper and further back than that too. Several prominent and important characters of progg or, if you will, 'the music movement', were in bands long before progg was a thinkable concept. Therefore, and despite the 1967-1982 scope of this blog, I think it's time to go back a bit in history and shed some light on what went on in Sweden in the 60's.

I don't think anyone actually ever counted how many active bands there were between 1962 and 1968, but likely several hundreds. Some of them hit big while others had just a single or two released, while others in turn never rose above the amateur level playing to friends and rehearsing in their parents' garages and basements. Needless to say, it's impossible to mention even a fraction of all those bands here, why this is merely a small overview of some of the domestically better known bands. Bands familiar to Swedes but not necessarily to anyone outside our borders.

Just a linguistic note before plunging ahead: Swedish 60's bands rarely used the grammatical article 'the' in their names. It's ”Namelosers”, not ”The Namelosers”; ”Mascots”, not ”The Mascots”. While it may appear inadequate to English speakers, and although exceptions exist, I've decided to keep in line with the original and most common band name procedure.

As in most Western countries, the impact of The Beatles were massive on the Swedish youth. Through pirate radio stations such as Radio Syd ('Radio South') and Radio Nord ('Radio North'), and through national broadcasting radio show Tio i topp ('Top ten'), the new melodic sounds from the UK reached our domestic listeners. A pop band craze took on swiftly, although those new amateur bands from all over the country were called twist bands early on. A wimpy name but truth be told: many of the bands were pretty wimpy sounding anyway. Some started out even before The Beatles broke big, but The Beatles and, to a not negligible extent, also The Rolling Stones and The Who had a huge impact on the majority of the Swedish beat groups.

TAGES

With limited knowledge of the English language (including some truly awkward pronounciation) and a not necessarily natural penchant for songwriting, many of those bands relied on covers of UK bands and American rhythm & blues standards, but some creatively fortunate bands featured good songwriters and above-average skills. Most notably Gothenburg's Tages (pronounced 'tah-gehs', not 'taygs'). After a weak start with a couple of less than impressive 45's, they got the chance to record and release an impressive amount of five LP's before disbanding (or rather evolving into Blond who also had one full length disc out, in 1969). Tages won a battle of the bands contest early on and became known as ”The Beatles of the Swedish West coast”. Soon freeing up a considerable amount of songwriting skills and a genuine sense of creative studio work, their last two albums are exceptional for a Swedish 60's band. Both ”Contrast” (featuring the psychedelic workout "Fuzzy Patterns") and especially their final album ”Studio” are landmark efforts of very elaborate pop psych. Add to that their final singles among which "Fantasy Island" is a beautiful example of how far the band would go before the saga ended.

Tages featured one Göran Lagerberg on bass, who later became a stahlwart on the progg scene, generously sharing his abilities with bands such as Kebnekajse, Fläsket Brinner, Jason's Fleece and Egba. He was also an oft-hired studio musician why his name can be found on albums by Joakim Skogsberg, Sam Ellison, Bernt Staf, Pugh Rogefeldt, Bo Hansson and the likes.

MASCOTS

The decidedly second best Beatles influenced beat group was Mascots. As with Tages, Mascots had an excellent flair for short, catchy pop tunes appropriate for the 7” format. They did however release two full length discs, the eponymous debut album in 1965, and ”Ellpee” the following year. Their best track by far was however first issued on a flexi disc that came free to subscribers to the premier Swedish pop magazine Bildjournalen (the song later released on a proper 7"): ”Words Enough to Tell You” is where Mascots let all their melodic expertise shine the brightest. It even beats Tages in their own game, with lush harmony vocals and an absolutely irresistable melody line moving in perfect ways somewhere between The Beatles and The Hollies. It's no wonder that ”Words Enough to Tell You” has found its way to several various artists comps over the years, both nationally and abroad. It certainly deserves it.

It's a sad fact that a burgeoning interest in politics brought Mascots to their demise. The band evolved into the unfathomably abysmal political band/theatre ensemble/general break-every-record-with-their-name-on-it-inspiring Fria Proteatern. What an utter waste of almost unrivalled pop sensibilities!

SHANES

Predating both Tages and Mascots were Shanes. They first tried their luck as an instro band in the Ventures vein in 1963, but as pop mania spread like a wildfire across the nation, the Western twang of their very earliest 45's changed in favour of a more typical beat group sound. When they went for a rougher, more garage or freakbeat inspired style, as on the pounding and hard-driving ”I Don't Want Your Love”, and when they at the very end of their career moved a step or two towards pop psych as on the very nice Yardbirds influenced ”Faces, Faces”, it really worked in their favour. That said, their shamelessly poppy ”Chris Craft No. 9” is a prime example of Swedish 60's beat. Shanes compilations exist but tend to focus on their most familiar hits and not necessarily on their most worthwhile tracks why it's a pretty frustrating task approaching the band's output. You need to sit through a fair amount of crap to save the nuggets.

OLA & THE JANGLERS

The same can be said about Ola & The Janglers. A graphic diagram of the quality of their output would look conspicuously similar to an ECG curve. Their bad songs were really bad and their good songs were really good. At their rawest they were a rather convincing garage rock band, and their stabs at psychedelia – most notably the Eastern-tinged track ”No One Knows What Happens Round the Corner” – were credible enough. Their good stuff would fill an LP length compilation, but a good one doesn't exist, only a couple focusing on their hits, including pointless Johnny-come-lately covers of Del Shannon's ”Runaway” and Chris Montez's ”Let's Dance”. I wish compilers would cast off the demon of nostalgia and go for the truly good stuff instead. There's one pretty great album hidden in Ola & The Janglers' ouvre but that has yet to see the light of day.

One of the Janglers' most prominent members, Claes af Geijerstam, recorded one underrated popsikey album in 1970, ”Out of My Hair”. The Ola of the bunch, Håkansson, went on to fame and fortune with bands like Secret Service who scored big with their single ”Oh Susie” in the 80's. He also became an influential music business honcho.

LEE KINGS

Lee Kings' output is relatively slim. Apart from a slew of singles it consists of one and a half LP only (the half one being shared with the forgettable band The Sunspots which contribute three tracks). Lee Kings were obviously sensitive to the changing times, constantly trying to come up with a song that would sit particularly well with the adolescent record buyers. You can easily say their vision, if ever they had one, was shaped by the whims of Tio i topp. That said, they did put out some memorable tracks, especially when psychedelia was slowly becoming the new worldwide fad. From Lee Kings' last year in existence, 1967, it's well worth lending an ear to ”Coming from the Ground” (backed by a surprisingly rowdy and fuzz fuelled "Day Tripper") and the highly endearing "The Trees Are Talking".

Singer Lenne Broberg later scored a brontosaurus sized hit with ”Mälarö kyrka”, a soft sounding predecessor of sorts to Contact's ”Fyrvaktarens dotter” and something of a 'guilty pleasure' of mine.

STEAMPACKET
Steampacket, a.k.a. Steampacket II, a.k.a. The Longboatmen were also stylistic grasshoppers, even more so than Lee Kings. Their eight 45's present a wide array of styles, from the moody balladry of ”Bara ett par dar” to the fiery freakbeat of ”Take Her Any Time”, with stops at psychedelia, country music and straightforward pop along the way. But with the great Rolf Scherrer and the exceptionally talented Mikael Ramel (both vocals and guitar) in the band, they were well equipped to dabble in whatever they felt like. Their complete recordings were released on the print-on-demand CD ”The Singles and More 1965-68” in 2015, and although it's far from stylistically lucid there's certainly not much to object to as far as quality goes. Having already mentioned Scherrer and Ramel, it's obvious why Steampacket are crucial to the pre-history of progg. Scherer was an early member of Kebnekajse and can also be heard on several Bo Hansson albums. And Mikael Ramel – well, he's Mikael Ramel, i.e. a genius solo artist of ”Till dej” et al fame, plus a one-time member of Fläsket Brinner.

So what about their multiple band names? Well, in Sweden they were called Steampacket II for their first three singles to avoid being confused with Rod Stewart's band Steampacket. For the same reason, ”Take Her Anytime” was released in the UK as The Longboatmen. Later they were domestically known simply as Steampacket.

SHAKERS

Say what you will of Tommy Rander – later to become main leftwing fundamentalist operator on Gothenburg's progg scene and eventually the nemesis and relentless decapitator of progg's unkempt creativity, and recently taking an unnerving turn towards ideas sampled from the extreme rightwing (after all, politics aren't a linear scale but a circle where the extreme right and the extreme left are much closer neighbours than a lot of people have the guts to admit) – but he indeed had a strong vision of what Shakers were supposed to be. More precisely a snotty Rolling Stones/Pretty Things styled, abrasive rhythm & blues band. If you don't mind his fonetical gibberish (English in Rander's mind) on early tracks and only slightly bettered in time for the band's final releases, you have quite a few highlights to discover. Shakers were also one of the earliest and most eager condoners of psychedelia, as evident on excellent numbers such as ”Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils)” and ”Tracks Remain”. All their recordings are decidedly rough-hewn which is a welcome change of pace after delving into the discographies of the more polite sounding bands. And if you pretend there's no Rander involvement whatsoever, it gets even better...

NAMELOSERS

In terms of rawness, Malmö's Namelosers gave Shakers a run for their money. Few Swedish 60's singles rock as hard and brutal as Namelosers' throat-grabbing rendition of ”Land of a 1000 Dances”. Of all the recorded versions of that old chestnut, Namelosers' version is hands down among the top 3. I mean, seriously, that fuzz guitar can simply melt concrete walls! It's hard to fathom the fact it was recorded and released in Sweden as early as 1965 when fuzz boxes were a brand new thing only just heard on Rolling Stones and Beatles records. Namelosers were truly in with the in-crowd.

Founded already in 1962 as Tony Lee & The Fenders, they soon changed their name to The Beatchers. As such they released their debut EP in late 1964 with Gary U.S. Bonds cover ”New Orleans” as the lead track. A Gothenburg band called The Beachers, without a 'T' in the middle, wasn't too happy having another similarly named band around, and threatened The Beatchers, with a 'T' in the middle, with a lawsuit. The now nameless band needed to come up with something catchy to call themselves, and a name contest was arranged by pirate radio station Radio Syd. I've no idea what other listener suggestions there might have been, but whoever came up with Namelosers (with an obvious reference to the recent Beachers debacle) won... ”New Orleans” was hastily reissued (on a new label) with the substituted band name on the cover. The name mess proved advantageous however, bringing a fair amount of attention to the band, and the song went straight to No. 3 on the Tio i topp chart. Fans were frantic, causing havoc at Namelosers shows, and the band quickly earned a bad boys reputation, Rolling Stones style. Restaurants wouldn't let them in because of their long hair and scruffy looks. (Those were the days...) To further nurture their hoodlum image, they told Bildjournalen that one of their favourite pastimes was to go to Malmö's local dump and shoot rats. Probably nothing more than a publicity stunt, although their best singles indeed sound as if they could kill a diversity of rodents...

Namelosers released a total of fourteen tracks from 1964 to December 1965. One further song appeared on a Bildjournalen flexi disc in 1966, the storming ”Do-Ao”. For some odd reason, the impossible-to-overrate ”Land of a 1000 Dances” failed to enter Tio i topp. Taken by surprise and hugely disappointed, Namelosers called it quits shortly after. In 1989, rare records shop and record label Got To Hurry issued a compilation of Namelosers complete studio recordings. Still possible to locate in used condition, a reissue is nevertheless long overdue.

ANNAABEE-NOX

In the small but loud legion of more garage infused bands you can't ignore the curiously spelled Annaabee-Nox. As with Shakers, no label trusted them with an album contract. Seven singles and a track on a Bildjournalen flexi disc are all that officially remain from their 1965-1968 lifespan. A rare surviving live tape confirms what people lucky enough to have seen them in concert have said ever since: they were one wild stage act. Not all of their studio recordings retain that same high level fervor, but you really don't want to mess with ”I'm Not Talking” and ”Bo Bo Boggie Pack” [sic!] if you love your mother. If you love your wife/husband and yourself, you don't want to pay the prices for the original 45's either – if they ever appear in playable condition that is. Thankfully, their complete discography received the compilation treatment in 2014 by Allatiders Skivhandel, and it's also easily obtainable in digital format courtesy of Parlophone.

LEA RIDERS GROUP

Of all 60's bands, Lea Riders Group is probably the one that most notably bridges the 60's and the progg era. They were also one of the most technically mature rock bands Sweden spawned during the entire decade. Led by Hawkey Franzén and featuring Slim Borgudd and Bosse Häggström, they were the embryo of Made In Sweden. Without Jojje Wadenius, the jazz elements were a lot fewer, although you could still hear jazz strains in their best known track ”Dom kallar oss mods” (the leitmotif from Stefan Jarl's [semi-]documentary of the same name). Without a doubt the band's high point, with wild screeching guitars, frenetic staccato vocals dissolving into stoned and paranoid groans, drums pounding out a disintegrating beat that is hazy and hard as rebar at the same time, a full frontal psychedelic assault leaving only smoke and dead bodies behind. A lot of people are familiar with it from being famously included on ”Pebbles Volume 3” (and subsequently on other comps as well). A track like that obviously raises the expectations for Lea Riders Group's other outpourings, but they might leave you disappointed at first. Which is not to say that the rest of their material is bad. Not at all. On the contrary, a lot of it is hard-boiled, thick-skinned, jailhouse badass rhythm & blues of international stature with all the chops needed to pull it off with brilliant precision. Just not from the same mould as ”Dom kallar oss mods”.

For an annoyingly long time, Lea Riders Group's recordings were just about impossible to find. Swedish label Garageland Records tried to rectify that in the late 80's when they released a vinyl comp, later reissued on CD as ”The Forgotten Generation”. However, the Garageland CD is best forgotten too as the sound is so dull and hissy that I suspect the tracks were taken from a fourth or fifth generation cassette dub. That hack job was thoroughly pushed into the depths of redundancy when Universal (for once!) did a good thing and released the collected singles on a Record Store Day LP in 2018. Although losing the bonuses from the Garageland CD (all of them live recordings and/or rehearsals in dubious fidelity from what I recall) and not including the additional instrumental tracks from the soundtrack to Jarl's movie, Universal's ”The Singles 1966-68” is absolutely essential from any perspective.

FRIENDS

When Garageland put out the unsatisfactory ”Forgotten Generation” CD, they concurrently reissued two other titles from their back catalogue, one by Panthers, and one by the rather peculiar band Friends. The Panthers release is best ignored altogether, but the Friends CD ”Talkin' 'bout Us” is well worthy of attention. At least to some. They're probably a band in the 'love it or hate it' category, all depending on what you think of Anders Peedú's vocals which admittedly is an acquired taste. The pronounciation heard on the early Shakers singles is Queen's English compared to the sometimes indecipherable syllables coming out of Peedú's mouth. But if that doesn't bother you (and I've learnt not to let it bother me although it took some time and persistance), then Friends were a rather remarkable group who despised the commonly overt Beatles and Stones influences. Their take on rhythm & blues was quite frankly unique among Swedish bands. ”It Ain't Necessarily So” and ”Empty Handed”, both taken from Friends' 1965 debut 45, are as raw as any of the American garage bands, untrained to the nth degree but nevertheless consistent and chock-full of self-assured and cocky attitude bordering on the nihilistic. Despite all Friends' obvious shortcomings (like having a twelve year old drummer, but so did Ornette Coleman), the three singles released during their short lifetime as a band are some rather exceptional stuff. The Garageland album fleshes out the short playing time those singles make for with some previously unreleased tapes which add nicely to the dizzying experience.

Although having Karusell, a major label with a thorough experience of bringing fame to their acts, backing them, nothing could catapult Friends to the commercially viable level of Tages, Mascots and Shanes. An appearance on the biggest (actually, only) TV talk show Hylands hörna generated gigs but no impressive record sales. Friends' fan base was largely made up of outcasts and mods from Stockholm's underground circuits, people often sharing the hard-living Friends' destructive lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. Years after the demise of the band – it was all over in 1966 – two of the members died from substance abuse. A unique band with an ever so inspiring integrity, but with a tragic story attached to it.

HEP STARS

I've not yet mentioned the biggest act of all: Hep Stars. Still heralded among a lot of people, I refuse to believe their position in people's minds is anything but pure nostalgia. Because man, did they suck! The only thing worthy of acknowledgement is their smash hit cover of Vince Taylor's ”Cadillac” which remains a stone cold classic. Albumwise, the only remotely amusing thing they did was the undeniably frantic live document ”On Stage” where they rush through their repertoire at breakneck speed in front of hysterical teenage girls. It's not a good album by any stretch, but yeah, it is remotely amusing. Hep Stars member Benny Andersson later became a mega star with ABBA.

COMPILATIONS

There are several shortcuts to the Swedish 60's if you don't want to take the long and often disappointing road to it. For a general overview there are two vastly different editions of ”Stora popboxen”. The first one leans towards the poppier side, while the second edition is more towards the rhythm & blues sounds. Both of them are a bit much to chew for the average listener, why I'd rather recommend the almost flawless one disc comp ”Searching for Shakes”. Originally released on vinyl by Amigo Records in the mid 80's, the CD reissue is graciously expanded with meticulously chosen tracks in the same garage/freakbeat vein as the original album. Some of the songs I've specifically mentioned above are featured on this five star compendium of Sweden's rawest sounds from the 60's. A similarly styled 2 CD set was fairly recently put together by UK's RPM Records, entitled ”Svenska Shakers”, accurately subtitled "R&B crunchers, Mod grooves, Freakbeat and Psych-pop from Sweden 1964-1968". There's some overlap with ”Searching for Shakes”, but the RPM release has several hard-to-find nuggets not on the Amigo artefact and vice versa, so if you like one of them, chances are you'll want the other one as well. The RPM set looks pretty nice too.


There are several minor acts that released utterly mindblowing one-off singles that are very rare and seldom comped. The six-volume series ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils” does a brilliant job bringing several more psychedelic sides together. Well-known bands such as Tages, Shanes, Ola & The Janglers and Mascots rub shoulders with more obscure acts like The Outsiders ("On My Magic Carpet" is a killer track!), T-Boones (featuring a very young Kenny Håkansson, as on the devastating "I Want You"), the garage punk of The Other Side's "Out My Light", the brilliant Members Blues Band (whose ”P.S. Elic” is quite possibly the trippiest single ever released in Sweden), New Creation (Christian outfit whose ”He Is There” is a jawdropping slice of proto-progressive late night psych), The Junk's & The Angels, Älgarna etc etc etc. Reaching into the 70's, the ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils” volumes are mandatory to readers of this blog. I'm not sure of their current availability but I assure you it's worth some effort to track them down, the first four volumes in particular.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

BRUCE & VLADY – The Reality (Svensk American, 1970)

Instrumental, English vocals
International relevance: ***

This is a bit of a stretch as this duo wasn't technically Swedish. They did however operate in Sweden during their short existence, releasing their lone album ”The Reality” on a Swedish label.

Organist and singer Bruce Powell was born and bred in Waukegan, Illinois, while noted drummer Wladyslaw “Vlady” Jagiello was of Polish origin. They met in Stockholm in 1969 where Powell had a gig at the Grand Hotel. However, the gig was cancelled when his Hammond B3 organ was damaged in transit. With the instrument left for repair for a couple of days, he had some time off in the Swedish capital. He met Jagiello at a local rock club. At the club they sat in with the act for the evening, and the two musicians got on well right away. The guys continued as a duo and got booked for several gigs at jazz hangout Klubb Ernst. There they grabbed the attention of Rune Wallebom, formerly of Swedish instro band The Violents (also known for being rock'n'roll singer Jerry Williams backing band). Wallebom was the co-owner of record label Svensk American which mainly had various dance bands and other commercially oriented singers in its roster. Wallebom promised Bruce & Vlady that if they recorded an album for him and it sold in 20,000 copies, he could break them in Great Britain. They taped the album in four sessions which – of course – didn't sell a squat. Wallebom's wife owned the other half of Svensk American, and when she divorced him, she decided to dissolve the label almost immediately after ”The Reality” was released, effectively ending all marketing and promotion before it even had begun.

Being a drums and organ duo, it's easy to initially mistake Bruce & Vlady for just another Hansson & Karlsson or Sound Express. What most obviously sets ”The Reality” apart from any of those bands is Powell's vocals, heavily steeped in American soul music and with touches of the progressive jazz of the day. He's got a good clearly soul-inflicted voice that gives ”The Reality” the upper hand of other jazz steeped bands with a similar setting. With the vocals as improvised as the music itself, the lyrics are mostly on-the-fly soul clichés with a faint religious-cum-sociopolitical bent in a slight 'life is hard, let's get together and we can make it' vein. However, the vocals add a crucial element to the music. The playing may not be as intense as Hansson & Karlsson's at their most focused, and on a few occasions Bruce & Vlady drop the ball rhytmically. But nevertheless, they manage to create a certain darkish mood that is quite appealing. Powell and Jagiello feed off each other's energy going in directions that sometimes suggests a psychedelic vibe. The album isn't a masterpiece and perhaps not one you'd play in any mood, but once you put it on it's easy to get captured by its spirit.

”The Reality” has enough drive and ideas that Bruce & Vlady could have built further upon had they continued playing together, but Powell split Sweden soon after its release in 1970 to return to the States. He later became a musical director for a Milwaukee church. He lost touch with Jagiello whose subsequent whereabouts I don't know anything about for certain, although I seem to remember reading somewhere that he died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (If anyone has any hard facts on this, please drop me a line in the comments section below.) As far as I know, none of the duo members ever recieved any royalties for the Svensk American, but credible reissue label Vampisoul relaunched the album to a positive reviews in 2015.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Glimtar II (A Disc, 1978)

Featured artists: Jazzgrupp & stråkkvartett / Carlstad Jazzquintet / Panik / Mantra / Nannie Porres / Ingegerd Nordell / Gothenburg City Pipe Band / Bo Thalén / Sibinović / Eva Waldemarsson / Slumpens Skördar / Göteborgs Visgrupp
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: **

Similar in style and disposition to volume 1 except that this is a single disc release as opposed to the preceeding double LP. Some artists are featured on both such as Ingegerd Nordell, noted jazz vocalist Nannie Porres, Mantra, and Göteborgs Visgrupp (of ”Riv alla stängsel” fame). ”Glimtar II” suffers from the same inconsistency as the first volume, with a hodge-podge of political progg, smooth jazz, folk and even a pipe band. Among the better efforts is Panik's lone track ”Ingenting” featuring some melodic fuzz guitar, althought it would have been more interesting hadn't it been an instrumental – in this state it sounds like a backing track rather than a finished track. Mantra's contribution is another stale fusion number, this time with a surprisingly spacey synth (or moog) driven middle section; "Two Cats in My Fantasy" might be mildly interesting to seriously devoted fusion heads.

The album was recorded in 1977 but not released until the following year.

No links found

GIN & GRAPPO – Gin & Grappo (CBS, 1975)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Featured on ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils Volume 4,” 1974 single 'A' side ”Förståelse” is Gin & Grappo's best known song. It's a catchy little track, taking cues from The Rolling Stones classic ”Sympathy for the Devil”. Gin & Grappo released two more singles plus two full length albums, the first one being self released in 1973.

For their second LP, they scored a deal with CBS, confusingly enough eponymous just like their debut. The 1975 albu features eleven tracks, nine of them written by Janne Goldman (the Gin half of the duo, with Bo Johansson being Grappo), with a couple of lyrics penned by Anders Klintevall, at the time host for Swedish radio show Tonkraft. The songs are half decent, not particularly good, not particularly bad but not particularly exciting either. Most of them are in a 'soft-rock with an edge' mould with a couple of them displaying a slight country tinge thanks to steel guitarist Jan Lindgren. The performances are competent utilizing the talents of well-known studio musicians and seasoned performers such as skilled piano player Per-Erik Hallin (the Swedish Christian Elton John of the 70's), percussionist Malando Gassama and back-up singer Agneta Gilstig whose main claim to fame is releasing an album with Vatten's Thomas Ernvik in 1980. The best track is probably album closer ”Så många människor” (ironically one of the two non-Goldmann compositions).

Goldmann later embarked on a solo career releasing a couple of albums and several 45's, occassionally with his backing band Rock Und Roll Gruppe. Bo Johansson appeared on a couple of Goldman albums and wrote ”Christine” for Swedish Traveling Wilburys styled supergroup Grymlings (featuring among others Pugh Rogefeldt, Mats Ronander and Göran Lagerberg formerly of Tages, Kebnekajse et al).

Full album playlist

Monday, July 20, 2020

CYMBELINE – 1965-1971 (Guerssen, 2017)

English vocals, Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

It happens ever so often that a band who released a good – even great – single severaldecades later instigates archival releases by labels specializing in reissues and archival releases. Sometimes those releases are best left ignored, while others actually unearth something worthwhile. This album offers a bit of both.

Norrköping based duo (sometimes trio) Cymbeline had only one 45 out on MNW's subsidiary Green Light, with ”New York” backed with ”Sixth Image” in 1970. ”New York” is an excellent slice of melodic fuzz-laced proto power pop in English (back when it was still OK to sing in English!) whereas the 'B' side has a dreamier mood akin to transient UK folk/psych/prog of the era.

With Guerssen's overview of a career that never happened dating back to 1965, it's obvious it has some poppier and less successful mid-60's moments. ”Fifth Image” is overall pretty bad while ”Look at the Stars” is sweet enough. ”Imagination” is rather evocative despite being a bit underdeveloped. Cymbeline did have a promising melodic sense already early on although it never reached the heights of highly talented Swedish beat groups such as Tages and Mascots.

There are also a few other later tracks that burden the compilation, like the painfully wimpy ”Mary Anne” and the second version of ”Stolta vingar”, decidedly inferior to the first recording of the song. The Swedish version of Jimi Hendrix's ”The Wind Cries Mary”, ”Vinden viskar Mary”, is a bit on the embarassing side too.

But when it's good, it's really good, and that goes beyond the seven-inch tracks. ”Third Image” (spot a title pattern here?) is unpolished but crunchy freakbeat with an understated chugging beat and howling guitars. ”Motala Ström” comes off like a semi-funky crossbreed of Pugh Rogefeldt and Anders F. Rönnblom. ”Flicka” in turn sounds like something a more psychedelically inclined John Holm could have come up with (although the tucked on jazzy ending is as illogical as it is unnecessary).

”1965-1971” is obviously inconsistent, with said inconsistency further emphasized by the bewildering track order. Members Michael Journath and Anders Weyde might have dreamed of putting out an album for some 40 odd years, but had they been given the opportunity to do so before their breakup soon after their lone 45 was released, it would definitely have been a more cohesive record. But that said, and with the primitive nature of many of the recordings firmly in mind, this is an essential trophy of previously unrecognized talent. The good bits easily make up for the lesser moments here.

Full album playlist (Bandcamp)